ARCADIS Reviews

Pros

A professional international organization with opportunities to develop your own competence. The management works through hierarchy, but is fair and modern.

Cons

HQ is really small and had a cold enviorment. It is not really accessble to talk to people and colleges do not really bouwnd with eachothers.

Pros

Global, challeging, intresting, development oppertunities, good for your language! Furthermore the headoffice is near to the station and easy to find.

Cons

ARCADIS is a real output focused organization. If you are more focus at the process it may be difficult to integrate in the culture.

Pros

The compensation is on par with other environmental and civil engineering consulting firms. There are some talented individuals, but the company is going through a signficant "brain drain," via layoffs and voluntary departures.

Cons

Constant acquisitions, with no clear direction on how to integrate individuals into the organization. Definitely an "Old Boys" club - as a female engineer I could tell my advancement was limited by my gender. I received many accolades, good reviews, but clearly you hit a ceiling fairly quickly if you don't fit their "mold" of what they are seeking. I left voluntarily and joined a Co. that respects and rewards my contributions. And diversity on other fronts - Black, Hispanic; non existent.

Advice to Senior Management

I was able to get some great experience and turned that into a rewarding job with a competitor. In fact, we just snatched a win from Arcadis on a project, largely because of my prior job at Arcadis. So thank you!

Pros

Room to grow and learn new tasks.

Cons

Heavy workload with an average of 65 to 70 hours worked per week.

Advice to Senior Management

balance work loads evenly among employees.

Pros

- "Opportunities" to work across the country and around the world
- Competitive employee benefits and stock purchase options
- Many work groups are very supportive and recognize employee achievements. I'm tying this into my biggest CON of the company, as well, since not all work groups are supportive or have good, strong leaders. Those offices and groups that have strong leaders who understand the importance of employee morale, team spirit, recognition, opportunity for "unnecessary" learning (i.e., pertaining to your job, but not mandated) or opportunity for professional growth are excellent places to work and I would recommend these offices/groups to anyone.

Cons

- NOT ALL WORK GROUPS ARE CREATED EQUAL; Some work groups are supportive and realize that professional development, recognition, and collaboration are important. These groups may have pizza parties and cake for employees celebrating a milestone with the company. Other groups do not exhibit such proven leadership nor recognize the importance of employee morale with respect to employee retention. Management needs to realize that there is a reason why certain work groups have higher turnover rates than others. Until management does something to change this lack of leadership will continue to breed discontent and loss of talented employees.
- Salaries are VERY dependent on work group, operating manager, and office location. Even within a single office, an engineer with 3-5yrs experience can earn a base salary <$1k higher than an entry-level engineer with 0yrs experience.
- The company seems to acquire or merge with another company every year in order to show clients that it is "growing" and "responding" to the global market. Well, that's great except that these mergers continue to provide greater salary discrepancies among employees in the same grade and experience level and the shrinking IT department cannot keep up with merging all of the communications systems.

Advice to Senior Management

Management has recognized the turnover rates of certain offices or work groups and have responded with additional training along with the "opportunity" for supervisors and managers who do not want such positions to step down and focus their energies on more technical tasks. I see this as a step forward. However, two other areas of major discontent are lack of bonuses for performance (it is really "who you know"), lack of promotion based on knowledge/aptitude/experience (if you are not a squeaky wheel, you are left in the mud and walked over). Again, I think that these issues are more on a local/regional organizational level and I think that the COMPANY has a lot to offer as long as you are connected to the right people.

Pros

Great ability to share knowledge across the company between different offices and exposure to excellent and exciting projects which can help boost your career.

Cons

Communication from executive management was felt to be patronising amongst employees. Opportunities for professional development, aside from the important exposure to great projects, such as courses and trainings, was zero.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest more in the people, not with yearly events such as Christmas lunches and dinners, but with opportunities for professional development as this will lead to networking opportunities and in turn more clients.

Pros

Pay is competitive, Benefits are decent, flex-time, work-balance okay.

Cons

No upward mobility, incompotent Managers, unhealthy office culture (back stabbing, and gossip)

Advice to Senior Management

Take a leadership seminar.

Pros

Flexibility, salary, benefits, locations and opportunities for Engineers.

Cons

No diversity. I'm not black but It seems they don't know how to work with African Americans as a race. If your black you better just keep your mouth shut and do what they tell you to do or else you will be "laid off"

Advice to Senior Management

Train managers how to treat all their employees.